EPISODE 519: William Shakespeare's "Pac-Man"
Seriously, Is there any more satisfying video game sound than that of Pac-Man eating?
POP CULTURE SPIRIT WOW
The last three months I’ve ended most days by taking a walk around campus. I’ve learned to wait until the end of the day so that there’s less chance of running into anyone. And I like to watch the light in the trees at sunset, the way the shadows of the leaves grow large and dance on the sidewalk, like a parent making shadow puppets for their kids.
About six weeks ago as I was taking my walk I thought I heard something echoing off some of the buildings, music of some kind. It was strange, not at all like the typical blast of sound from a college stereo, ethereal. It was like somewhere in the distance a gate had opened to a dance hall in the 1940s and the sounds of a saxophone were coming through.
Ever since the music has come and gone, sometimes weeks apart, but always in the distance. Sometimes it’s coming from where I first heard it, sometimes from an entirely different direction. I tell myself it’s just the sound waves echoing back off a building, but it makes the whole campus seem haunted. The moreso because I can never quite a get sense of a whole melody;, it’s just little cuttings of sound curling in and out of audibility like a dancer’s hand moving in the breeze.
Maybe instead of the 1940s on the other side of that unseen portal there’s a world with different rules, a place where when you burn a sheet of music the sounds of it rise and float away like smoke.
Another week. And a relatively peaceful one for me, though I have noticed some hostility sniffing outside the door, looking for a way in. “What is the point of this person?” a Jesuit wrote me this week, frustrated with a dumb thing another Jesuit had written online. On social media I see people starting to get into it about whether it’s safe to go back to church. (Answer: It is, if by “going to church” you mean staying home and watching the Pope on the telly.)
It’s very familiar, these sorts of conversations, very much the world pre-This. (Pre-Doug, if you will.) And I’m just as likely to get hooked into them as anyone, especially over time. But honestly a lot of it seems like a trap. I know what I think is right, and I’m doing my best to do it. I bet you are too. It may not seem like enough when your Facebook feed has people saying crazy things. But do yourself a favor and mute them for a while and see if it doesn’t improve your spirits dramatically.
This is a really short and mellow newsletter, I know. It’s been a busy week, and rather than zippy I find myself more in that Chewing Things Over kind of mood.
In addition to my nighttime friends Inspector Morse and sequel Lewis (which are basically my version of self-soothing) I’ve been slowly working my way through this new Netflix show Hollywood, about a diverse bunch of actors, writers and directors struggling to get their big break in the late 40s. It’s very soapy but I find the stories of the older cast (the executives, basically) tremendously moving.
For me the show is all about longing. The young all long to get their shot and to be seen. Meanwhile the old long to be valued and to find the courage to allow themselves to be seen.
Funny to be at an age where the stories of the 20somethings feel a bit flat, while the much slower quieter stories of the middle aged seem so beautiful. But there we are!
Speaking of middle aged, Pac-Man turned 40 this week. As I understand it he celebrated quietly at home by consuming a whole cake in the shape of his head followed by a kind of embarrassing late night phone call to Ms. Pac-Man.
Poor Pac. He’s never really understood why things didn’t work out between them. But it was so obvious to everyone else he just wanted to keep doing the same thing over and over, while she wanted a life with color and variety and new challenges.
“You need to stop chasing ghosts,” she told him so many times. “They’ll always end up turning on you.” But he just kept on going.
Coming to Theatres in The Next Year That Theatres Are Open: PAC-MAN, by Gus Van Sant. With Steve Carell as Pac-Man and Rosie Perez as Ms. Pac-Man.
At the very least I should have links for you, but again, the week proved to be a bit too much for all that. But here’s three images that I really loved.
I’ve been watching a lot of Parks & Rec. And there’s a great episode in season 4 where Ron and Leslie, the moderators of the Pawnee versions of Boy Scouts and the Brownies, compete over whose club is better for kids. And Ron loses, and it’s a bit sad, actually. He talks about how he doesn’t really seem to make sense to younger people any more.
And afterward Leslie places the ad above for a new club just for kids who would get him, Club Swanson. I love that line, “Did you make the drum yourself?”
From everything I’ve read this is a real photo from near Pasadena last week.
I posted it on the LMU Jesuits Facebook page. Two LMU Faculty had just the greatest comments:
Lockdown or not, we are still Angelenos.
And finally, this is from an interview from a Marvel comics editor. The interview was done many months again, but it sure feels prescient now.
I promise I’ll have more to say next week. Links! Insights! General hilarity!
In the meantime, be good to yourself. Trust your instincts, and don’t let anyone convince you otherwise. You are doing just fine.
Thinking of you. See you next week.